Category Archives: Home Design

Previews: Architectural Digest – February 2022

Home Tour: ‘Menzies Pop’ In Sumner, New Zealand

An architect’s own home, Menzies Pop is a celebration of architectural craft. Introducing a refined material palette to the pre-existing building, Common Architecture maximises the potential of the New Zealand property. Located in Sumner, a suburb settled on the outskirts of Christchurch, Menzies Pop is a distinctive concrete construction.

A house tour of ‘The Bunker’, as it is referred to by locals, reveals the creative possibilities of the building that culminated in it becoming an architect’s own home. Hand-crafted details give character to the foundation of the house, such as clover shapes cut into the parapets and a skilfully carved arched entrance. Features retained by Common Architecture, such as a concrete ceiling and concrete work beams, present the home as an architecturally exciting offering.

Cementing its status as an architect’s own home, Menzies Pop emerges as a thoughtful reconfiguration of its original building. Three bedrooms are reimagined as a kitchen-living area, with their north-west orientation allowing the spaces to have access to a deck at the rear of the home. By moving the kitchen into a more communal part of the house, Common Architecture presents the space as central to family life. The interior design of the structure speaks to the fact that it is an architect’s own home.

An expert eye is applied to the scale of furniture, skylights and the single-length boards that cover some of the walls of the home, so that the dimensions of the building are emphasised. The beloved timber of the pre-existing home is complemented by teak, stone and brass accents, which form a sophisticated extension of the original material palette. Embracing its structural history, Menzies Pop stands as a cleverly crafted example of an architect’s own home.

Timeline: 00:00 – The Local Project’s Print Publication 00:20 – An Introduction to Menzies Pop by Common Architecture 00:40 – Where It’s Located 00:52 – The Existing House 01:35 – The Beginning of the Renovations 02:45 – The Key Elements of the New Renovation 03:47 – The Kitchen 04:01 – The Extension (First Floor Edition) 05:03 – The Key Learnings 05:41 – What Common Architecture Are Most Proud Of 06:19 – The Local Project’s Tri-Annual Subscription

Views: Fashion Designer Home Tour In Los Angeles

Tag along to Los Angeles for a behind the scenes visit with Libertine fashion designer Johnson Hartig in his new Hancock Park home, Basket Case. Discover how Johnson has created an exotic retreat for himself, melding collections, color and pattern for a one of a kind personal expression of everything he loves.

Hear how he channeled inspiration from Piero Castellini’s famous house in Milan for hand painted murals in his living room. Watch as Johnson explains how during COVID lockdown he spent hours creating a multi layered grotto fantasy in his dining room based on his own Plates and Platters wallpaper for Schumacher. Learn how Johnson melds his many collections for an effortless mix of high and low, eras, and locations around the globe.

Johnson’ incredible resourcefulness and obsessive research fuels all his creative endeavors for a unique cross pollination of ideas and DIY ingenuity. Watch as Johnson shares resources, creative tips and how he brings the outside in and why he thinks Sister Parish would have loved his house. You’ll be inspired, informed and entertained!! For more visit quintessenceblog.comSHOW LESS

Remodels: 1892 Victorian Home In Goshen, New York

Today on AD we visit Goshen in Upstate New York to tour a Victorian home from 1892 with a ton of potential, but needing lots of work. Contractor Nick Schiffer from NS Builders goes room by room laying out the possibilities within the walls while acknowledging how daunting the road to this former gem’s restoration will be. When you see it’s listed at just under $300,000, though – and similar sized homes in the area fetch double that amount – this massive renovation becomes one seriously worth considering.

Tours: ‘Captain Kelly’s Cottage’ On Bruny Island in Southern Tasmania

Captain Kelly’s Cottage is the story of restoring a historical home on the edge of the world. The house was finished in 2016 by John Wardle Architects for John and his wife Susan.

Having bought Waterview without knowing its history, John and Susan quickly researched the landscape and its colonial settlement. After asking neighbours and previous owners, John found out that Captain Kelly was a first-generation European Australian with convict parents. Before John and Susan intervened, the cottage had weathered multiple additions and alterations and, along the way, lost a sense of its own history.

As one of two large structures perched along the edge of the vast maritime landscape, looking out over the ocean of Storm Bay, Captain Kelly’s Cottage is steeped in architectural history. Throughout the story of restoring a historical home on the edge of the world, John Wardle Architects achieved a contemporary reading of the existing structure whilst featuring important elements of its past.

For a small and condensed project, John found the restoration challenging – to give the interior design and the architecture a present-day reinterpretation, whilst staying true to its heritage and understanding the environmental impacts and climatic conditions of being on the edge of a cliff. John also took the time to understand the responsibility of owning the Tasmanian land.

More recently, research into the pre-colonial history of the First Nation’s stewardship of the property is being undertaken, an important task John is intent on doing. As the story of restoring a historical home on the edge of the world comes to a close, John views his interventions as a curatorial restoration. The home is primarily made from timber and brick, which has been locally sourced.

Additionally, a lot of the interior design is fuelled by locally sourced elements – materials, furniture and pieces. Fabrics and objects within the interior have also been sourced by John and Susan from their international travels, evoking the essence of a maritime home on the edge of a cliff, looking out to the world beyond. Stated to have been built by carpenters from Kelly’s ship, the architecture and interior design of the home today speaks to its original identity and tells the story of restoring a historical home on the edge of the world.

Internally, a strip of paint has been removed to reveal the home’s original paint colours, exploring both the original and subsequent eras of the cottage’s existence at once. Located on Bruny Island in Southern Tasmania, Captain Kelly’s Cottage by John Wardle Architects is a significant intersection of historical eras. The cottage is the story of restoring a historical home on the edge of the world; there is an appreciation felt throughout – of its past and a celebration for its future.

Modular Home Design: ‘Dream Space’ In Kurdistan

Precast modular houses are used globally nowadays , with alot of advantages for their users , but their main problem is that the designs of modular units  is too general than not specified to a certain environment. That’s why,  they are often can’t be well adapted with their surrounding environment.

Project name The Dream Space

Architecture firm Hady Mirawdaly

Location Kurdistan, Iraq

Views: Hi-Tech Factory-Built Portable Micro Homes From ‘MICROHAUS’

MicroHaus structures are portable and easy to transport. You can rapidly respond to changing circumstances and environments and change your rental business location in hours.

MicroHaus’ natural wood and fabric interiors are durable and beautiful. Designed in Europe and crafted in the USA, the interior elements are also a sign of our modern times.

These homes are energy efficient with low operating costs. They are durable and made from eco-friendly materials that are safe for you and the environment. Back-up power, a large water tank, and our Cloud Self-Diagnosis system make each one perfectly sustainable.

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English Cottages: ‘Micro-Hamlet’ Of Dulwich, UK

With its white weather boarded exterior, blue plantation shutters, lush sprawling garden and exquisite interiors, you may well think that this enchanting Georgian property was situated by the coast in Cornwall, or even tucked away amongst the lavender in Provence.

Lydia Stangroom, August 25, 2021

Situated in ‘its own private micro hamlet’ in the Sydenham Hill Conservation Area of Mount Gardens, the property has undergone a complete renovation, having been transformed into a ‘bright and airy four bedroom detached home that is full of character.’

The results really will inspire – with a kitchen/dining room that flows seamlessly out into the leafy garden, that leads to a covered outdoor terrace. Also helping to create a flow between indoor and outdoor living is a garden room plus a detached art studio/ separate annexe.

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Design: ‘Cocoon Cottage’ In New York By Architect Nina Edwards Anker

After earning her doctorate at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and working in Norway’s capital as a teacher and research fellow, architect Nina Edwards Anker came home to the U.S. with a refreshed perspective on environmental sensitivity. When the opportunity arose to build an eco-cottage on family land in Southampton, Long Island, Edwards Anker’s thought experiments resulted in a 1,738-square-foot vacation home completed in 2017, made striking for the combination of curved, shingle-clad walls that meet planes of glass, with some cast in bright, unexpected color.